Reflections on Module

So in a breeze, 13 weeks have come and gone. And soon it will be the last day of school. Have I learnt anything? Perhaps. I think resume writing and interview skills would come in very handy in the future. Also, the lessons learnt from preparing a proposal, making oral presentations are also important. I think I have caught a small glimmer of what the working world is like.

There are certainly things I disagree with. Communication is important yes, but can it be taught? In essence, is it nature or nurture? Maybe a bit of both. From what I've learnt, things like cover letters, resume templates, minutes templates, these can easily be found from the net. But the practical aspects, I believe cannot be taught. Rather these can only be experienced, and learnt from there. Thus, this module achieves its purpose in allowing students to have that experience, from Alvin's blog, I think he brought up a good suggestion. That is to have more "mini-presentations" rather than one large one. It could be a better gauge to see if pupils actually have learnt anything when comparing to how they were at the start to how they end up finally.

At the start of the module, I stated that communication makes us human. Now at the end, I'd like to go back to that. The opposite must be true as well, to be human is to communicate. To communicate effectively, first let us be effective humans. Throughout the module there has been a lot of talk of being natural. We already realise that "naturalness" helps us to connect better with our audience. But to learn how to be natural? To act natural? These are really just oxymorons isn't it. You can't teach the things which make us human, this is the nature aspect.

I enjoyed this class, I really did. Rarely in college does one get to have so much interpersonal interactions during class. And I think this is one aspect of this module which makes it so interesting. Good luck to all for the upcoming examinations!

Reflections on Oral Presentation

With the semester coming to a close, we find that the last major project of ES2007S is finally over. Looking back, we can now take a deep sigh of relief and laugh at our former selves. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.*

I will not talk too much about our project content, suffice to say that it took many redos, editting the problem statement over and over again. Presentation wise, if I had to do it again, I would make minor edits to my slides. Some information which was not needed should have been omitted. I think I made the mistake of tailoring my speech to fit the slides rather than the slides to fit my speech. After all, the slides are merely an aid. Less informative slides would have been better. Otherwise, I should have highlighted the important terms in red to make them stand out better. Admittedly, there wasn't much time. Slides were still being editted the night before, and even the speech was constantly changing.

If I could, I would have slowed down the pace of my speech. The terrifying thing about presenting under a time limit is when you don't have any indication of how much time you have left. I think I ended up speaking faster than I should have had I known that there was still some time left.

As for nonverbals, as far as it goes, eye contact is important. Something all of us know, but none can actually pull off (with the exception of a select few). Also, perhaps standing nearer the class might have helped hold their focus. Also, I noticed that many presenters liked to present while standing behind a table/support of some kind. Perhaps it might make one feel less vulnerable, but at the same time it makes the presenter come across as less open. I'm not sure about this, what do you think?

After all is said and done, oral presentation, was, as usual, nervewrecking, and I hope never to do it again. Yet we all know that is wishful thinking.

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*

Perfect understanding of an event after it has happened; - a term usually used with sarcasm in response to criticism of one's decision, implying that the critic is unfairly judging the wisdom of the decision in light of information that was not available when the decision was made.

Fostering Intercultural Communication

I recently had the chance to talk to a norweigian professor regarding my SEP to Norway. He had some insight to share which I thought might be appropriate for this post. He told me that in Norway, the people may come across as unfriendly as they do not say hello to strangers. He cautioned that if people did not approach foreigners, it was not because they are racist, but rather because they do not approach strangers (even locals) in general. Saying hello is strictly reserved for friends. Perhaps due to the more open spaces in Norway, norweigians do not have much contact with other people, and hence their culture results in this general sense of unfriendliness. This is quite unlike people from say, the US or Canada. In the Americas, people are very friendly, even when they do not like you, because, being friendly is customary to their culture.

I don't mean that in a negative way. Let me give an example of an encounter I had on my recent trip to Toronto. We were eating at a restaurant with a local Canadian. After we had placed our orders, the waiter took a while to serve our food and cutlery (actually just my cutlery. The rest were served pretty quick. Eventually, I went to take my own as this was the fastest). To me, this standard of service seemed pretty standard from a Singaporean point of view. But apparently to the canadian, it was sub par. And she let the waiter know it, in a friendly way. To the gist of it, she told the waiter curtly, "Sir, we have been waiting for our food for quite some time, and this is not acceptable." The waiter was of course apologetic and rushed off, knowing that a smaller tip would be in store. Note, I did not find the time they took to be exceedingly long, and even so, if it was in Singapore, ask yourself how would we react? I think we would be the apologetic one and start of by saying along the lines of, "I'm sorry but my food isn't here yet... etc." The waiter would then go off to search for the missing food, we would grin and bare it and perhaps vow not to come back to the same restaurant again.

It all boils down to a difference in our cultures. In our confucian based society we are trained to be respectful and courteous even to the brink of ridiculousness. (Saying sorry when we aren't the ones at fault, or saying thank you when we are the ones doing the favour.) Canadians on the other hand, have been brought up to know their rights and to demand it, albeit politely. Perhaps this may account for the difference in service standards of our retailers and service providers, not so much the lack of training in good service, but the way our culture works in general.

Personal Statement: Take 2

When I was schooling, knowledge was placed into 2 vast categories. The sciences; of which there were 3, physics, chemistry and biology, and the Arts; namely geography, history and literature. That seemed to be all the world knew about. From our peers we knew there were those who were science oriented (me included), where math and numbers were fun, and then there were those Arts oriented, where essays and remembering huge chunks of dates were their forte. It just seemed so perfect, this classification system.

It was only till I left my formal education till I realised one day to my consternation that I did not know anything about this world at all. On that fateful day my friend had told me he was studying about leather. I did not know that there was such a subject called leather. But indeed there was; different grades of leather comes from different parts of the hide from which it is made. And then my eyes opened to the rest of the things around me. I read up on philosophy, the very building block on which scientific principles stand. In fact, most early scientists were mainly philosophers first. Rene Descartes, my favourite philosopher who came up with the quote "I think therefore I am" also came up with the idea of cartesian geometry.

Indeed the world is much more interesting than I previously thought. There is no way to condense all the knowledge in the world into 2 broad categories of arts and science, it just does not work. Even as I train myself up in scientific endeavours , the practicalities of skills involved in understanding and learning chemistry is transfered into my personal endeavours. In my spare time, I enjoy dabbling in graphic design and even bought hardware and software to practice on. My skills in chemistry will not be wasted as I intend to transfer my knowledge to the workplace where I discovered a field in the chemistry of fragrances. The formulation and creation of olfactic organic compounds is indeed a very exciting prospect for me as it combines both the arts and sciences which I love. Hopefully I will be able to make a career out of this fascinating yet challenging industry.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken

Job application letter

left out my details on purpose. I'll try putting up a 2nd draft at a later date

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Aaron Thong Zhenghui
** *******
Singapore ********
Telephone: 9*******

3 Sep, 09

Germaine Tay Mei Yu
Administrative Officer
School of Science and Technology, Singapore
5 Clementi Ave 6
Singapore 129835

Dear Ms Tay,

I am writing to express my interest in joining your school as a chemistry teacher. I am currently pursuing my undergraduate studies at the National University of Singapore, expecting to graduate with a B.Sc (Chemistry) Hons. at the end of the academic year 09/10.

I come to you with prior work experience as a teacher, having been employed as a relief chemistry teacher in Anglo Chinese Junior College where I worked for 6 months after I completed my national service stint. I have also worked as a tutor in chemistry and biology to students both in the O and A level standards. Having been exposed to the standards and rigours which teaching entails, I am confident that I have the skills and creativity required to fulfil this challenging job scope.

The School of Science and Technology (SST), although new, promises to be a dynamic player in educating and nurturing bright young minds. To achieve this, educators need creativity and a strong passion for teaching, qualities of which I can bring to your school. I am confident that my skills will be of use in nurturing the next generation of our children.

I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss my qualifications and the possibility of contributing to your firm. I look forward to hearing from you and I thank you for your time.

Yours sincerely,




Aaron Thong Zhenghui

Resolving interpersonal conflicts

Let's face it, interpersonal conflicts are inevitable. Even the most skilled of communicators will displease someone from time to time. As the adage goes, you can't please everyone. The difference lies in how the conflict gets resolved. I suppose, more often than not, it goes unresolved, left to be buried by the ethers of time rather than making amends.

This reminds me of an event which occured back in the army. It involved 2 people, let's call them A and B, and then me to a small extent. It all occured when the guard duty roster had just come out.

I cannot remember the exact details of why, but both did not like the dates assigned to them. And eventually they decided to swap the dates of their duties. So life proceeded on as per normal. A went for B's guard duty and reminded B to go for his which was a few weeks away. This is where I come in.

Now a week later, it was clear that B had forgotten the exact date which he was supposed to do on. As A was not in camp at the time, I told him that I thought it was on this certain X date, but also clarified that he should check with the duty roster as I was not a 100% sure. And so I assumed he did.

It turned out he did not. And also it turned out that the date I told him was wrong, his actual duty date was a few days before that. So when he did not turn up for his guard duty, naturally things got bad. A few scoldings from our boss and some heated exchanges between A and B later I learnt the whole story.

To cut the long story short, B accused A of not telling him the correct date, which A vehemently denied. I gave my side of the story too, which apparently reinforced his mistaken notion of the wrong date. Apparently it had turned out that the person in charge of printing the roster was lax in his duty and on that fateful day there was still no roster up yet. In any case, A and B were both punished and given extra duties to do. I emerged unscathed and even got my normal duty reassigned to them as an extra.

After all was settled, relations between A and B only got worse till the end of NS. I suppose the proverbial hatchet never gets buried these days, just thrown out and forgotten. As for me, that incident never really did affect my relationship with A or B, but it left me with a thought. If I had known beforehand how the incident would play out, would I have bothered to try to help out? Also, when miscommunication arises, how should we resolve such issues, (especially in a my word against your word type of scenario where there is no clear correct/wrong)?

Effective communication? Actions speak louder than words.

Yes, effective communication helps us go places (both literally and metaphorically). It helps information be passed smoothly from the source to the receiver, preventing miscommunication. But yet I believe, that fundamentally, effective communication is so much more. What then is the importance? Well, I believe, if nothing else, effective communication makes us all human.

Perhaps I should explain. If effective communication was merely about a 100% accurate transmission of data and information from source to receiver, then why bother. We'd be better off building robots in our stead. Yet, this is not so (thankfully!). Because effective communication is so much more! It is about communicating the things left unsaid (mainly by non verbal means). The tones, intonations and nuances tell us the mood and intention of the speaker. The sense of touch, an arm around the shoulder says "I'm here". The genuine smile says, "I'm really happy to see you". Indeed, actions speak louder than words.

Consider for a moment, when learning a language. I may know the grammar. I may know the vocabulary. But when actually placed in that society, I find I have no clue what the locals are talking about at all. The varying nuances in intonations, the accent and slangs cannot be learnt any other way than by actually experiencing. Being there in the present, understanding the society's culture, how they think, how they feel, these are all part of effective communication, and these are all part of showing our humanity.

So, yes, effective communication can help us land a job, it can help us travel the world, it can help us forge better relationships all around. But fundamentally, its importance for me goes beyond that. It takes more than head knowledge to communicate effectively. It takes genuine interest and may I even go so far to say, love. No matter how hard we try, if we are not genuine, it will show eventually. If we aren't communicating effectively, then perhaps we aren't getting the full human experience.